aye Mike Gregory came through that great youth set up.....

signed from Wigan St pats in the close season June 1982
made his debut in the first month of the new season in September 1982.

Christ if I saw him 'come through' i had one hell of an eagle eye.........

Whitehead and Bateman will be talking terms to Moran on Monday apparently.

The Bulls message board is currently going through the grief cycle over this. They were in denial for ages, currently dealing with acceptance and anger.

Selling Iestyn Harris helped to safeguard our short term future. Signing Harris has destroyed theirs. Funny how things work out, isn't it?

*funny weird, I don't mean funny ha ha. Not pleasant to see them on their knees.

It's a done deal. He'd have been playing at Newcastle Knights now if not for having a young child.

Ryan Atkins anyone? Worst haircut in Europe. Not to mention him and Myler go to get there eyebrows "threaded" every week in the mall.

their*

I am still struggling to work out why we need these players considering the depth we have in these positions.

Possible scenario;

Morley (35), Solo (33) retire (-2)
Trent / Ben H to prop
Whitehead, Bateman 2nd row (+2)
Currie to Championship side for 1 yr
Laithwaite eases into 1st team with 8/9 matches
Other juniors e.g. Bridge not proven yet

Note also that Currie and Bateman can both play centre. I have seen a couple of tries from Currie where he simply outpaced the opposition centres and wing. He is very fast. Not sure how quick Bateman is.

So your going off 1 season to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a kid? would rather give Solomona 1 more year while Currie is improving.look at wigans forum they were gutted they lost Currie,for me looks more a complete player already than Bateman.. stick with what we have i say

This season we have not missed Solomona. We have been lucky to have had a few good seasons from him.
We are Warrington & the money side is not a problem.

First off, I am not saying we do the above, the question was why should we buy. I am presenting a possible reason for that.

Second, who do you think would be at the forefront of this purchase ? Obviously it's TS. I would suggest that he is likely to have a very good idea of where all his players are, and if Moran offers him money to strengthen the squad, would spend it wisely.

Third off, Bateman has a proven track record. He is playing regular 1st team football, but obviously the expectation would be that heh as a lot of potential to come. How much money did we spend on Myler and how old was he when we purchased him ? All signings are a gamble.

Fourth, what if Currie does not improve while we are playing out Solo. We have to plan ahead for the next couple of years. We need experienced players that can win titles and back up in all our positions. You simply can not assume Currie will be the real deal in 2-3 years time.

Fifth, we don't really know how much has been offered, and how much is' a ridiculous amount of money' ?

Bateman is a top quality youngster, I'd love to see him at Saints.

Same goes for Currie who with Dwyer are the absolute stand outs for Warrington at that age.

It'd be plain greedy to have the two best - for their age - second rowers in British RL wouldn't it?

Yours in a gluttonous mood...

Don't forget Paul Gallen!

Proved you correct yesterday with his try. Showed a clean pair of heels.

he was very fast indeed, nice having a 2nd rower coming through with that kind of pace...

Watched him with interest v Leeds. I cannot see why we would want him. He has little pace so would be a liability in defence. Tough little beggar ... but that's about it. No thanks.

I have to say out of the three gun backrowers John Bateman, Ben Currie & Stevie Ward, Currie and Ward look potentially better players in the long term.
I think Bateman is good but his lack of size may go against him whereas the other two have more pace and athleticism.

I must admit he hasn't stood out in any of the games I've seen him play this season.

He's the best young back rower in the competition. His defense is absolutely outstanding, he's hurting the opposition at 18, he'll be a monster by 23 at this rate.

OK for lower level Super League at best ... but he has severe limitations. Hurting opposition isn't really that important. He's be a liability (pace-wise) for opposition to attack. He can only really develop as a prop. Someone like Ben Currie will get stronger and learn how to use his pace. I fear Bateman is physically a very early developer and may not improve at all.

I've seen him play three times and he's been average but then i'm no scout and i haven't seen him play anywhere near the amount of times to pass a judgement on him, i'm sure Tony Smith knows a little something about Rugby though, i'd hazard a guess that he knows more than me and probably most on here.

That would be my view too.

I too have great faith in Tony Smith. That is why I would be very surprised if he ends up at Warrington.